230537 SE Reflecting the web as an everyday medium (2006S)

The Web, and most recently the blogosphere and collaborative spaces such as wikipedia, all have disrupted our previous notions of what counts as an 'authoritative source.' In Information Politics on the Web (MIT Press, 2004), I described the Web as a "collision space for alternative accounts of reality," where for example the Web is thought to be 'the first to know,' 'closer to the ground than the ground itself' and 'no longer virtual, but very much real.' But how is news, specifically, affected by the Web?

This course looks at a particular vocation (journalism) and its outputs (news formats). It inquires into the effects the Web are having on how journalism is practiced, and on what counts as news. (By examining in detail news and blog engines, the course also provides training on how to find authoritative sources and spaces.)

The course begins by examining competing visions of the 'newspaper of the future.' Subsequently we develop critiques of 'old media news' and 'new media news,' ultimately asking the question whether the Web brings us beyond news.